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Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
Karl H. Spatschek
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 67-80
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Kinetic Theory | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The statistical description of a hot, magnetized, and classical plasma is reviewed. The latter represents the appropriate model for a fusion plasma in magnetic confinement. Approaches for (reduced) kinetic descriptions are presented. We first briefly discuss the Landau-Fokker-Planck equation. The famous Boltzmann equation for dilute gases is then presented (without a systematic derivation), and the differences between the kinetic and the hydrodynamic regimes are worked out. In the main part, the consequences of long-range Coulomb interactions are demonstrated. Several plasma-kinetic equations, like for instance the Balescu-Lenard equation, are systematically presented. Physical consequences from the linearization of the kinetic equations, e.g., collision frequencies and Landau damping, are elucidated. In the final part of the paper the specific re-formulations in magnetized plasmas are sketched. The drift-kinetic and the gyro-kinetic approaches are presented. The paper is concluded by an outlook on often used truncations.